


Skybreak

by icarus_chained



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Adrenaline, Fighter Pilots, Flying, Gen, Joyful, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 12:57:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/639146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People think Rhodey is Tony's better half, the responsible one, the one who wouldn't know adrenalin if it up and bit him.</p>
<p>Those people? Forget which one of them was in the goddamned Air Force.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skybreak

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt of 'adrenalin junkie'. *grins sheepishly*

No amount of technology, no remote control or UAV flight, would ever replace the pilot. Would ever replace the human rush, the human reflex, the adrenal triumph of a split-second judgement, the physical roar of the engines and the clawed fingers of gravity trying to pull you down, the sensation as the ground fell away and the sky tore itself open in front of you.

He tells the recruits that technology will never replace them. He tells them that flight will always be there for them, that flight _has_ to be there for them, because they are masters of the sky and what the hell were humans meant to do, except fly?

And some of them think he's talking out his ass, and some of them think he's trying to hold on to his job in the face of the bright, shiny new machines, and some of them think he's a hidebound optimist who watched Top Gun one time too many times.

Rhodey, stiff and starched with his uniform and his stick-up-the-ass, just smiles. Soft and secret, a little smirk hidden away where they can't see. Because they can think whatever the hell they like, can't they? Rhodey _knows_.

He knows men will never stop flying. Not because the machines will stop coming, because they won't. Not because the future's gonna step aside for him, because it won't. Rhodey knows because he's _seen_ the future. He's seen technology, he's been friends with the biggest and best damn technologist on the goddamned planet.

And when Tony made the armour, he took away the plane, not the man. When Tony set out to fly, he put the engines literally in a man's hands, put wings on his feet, and broke the sound barrier with his fucking _forehead_.

Yeah, oh yeah. Rhodey's seen the future. Rhodey's seen it claw it's way into the sky, Rhodey's seen it break the sound barrier, Rhodey's listened to it whoop like a fucking _madman_ for dogfights over warzones it shouldn't be flying in the first place. 

Rhodey's felt the metal close over his own chest, he's watched the HUD come online in front of his own eyes, he's felt the ground give way, he's felt the sky open up ahead of him. He's felt gravity reach clawed fingers after him, and he's listened to Tony's giddy whooping in his ear as they explode skywards and tell gravity to _suck it_.

They look at him, in his military uniform, stiff and responsible and Tony's better half, already half-bought by the very technology he's denying, already half betraying them. Talking out his ass, because he wouldn't know adrenalin if it bit him, and technology has already replaced everything important in his life. 

"Hey, honey. What is this, a fifty mile an hour zone? Kick it into gear, we gotta show these SHIELD boys how it's done!"

Yeah, Rhodey thinks. His grin stretched and wild over his teeth, the roar of the repulsors in his ears, the HUD dancing before him and the enemies piling on behind them. Tony's laughing, demanding voice in his ear, the future, the technology, the biggest adrenalin junkie on the planet. Demanding he keep up, never thinking for one second that he can't. The pair of them spiraling higher, the adrenal triumph of a split-second's judgement, the human rush, the human reflex.

Hell yeah, he thinks. Adrenalin bound in metal, and gravity clawing behind him, the sound of his own whoop in his ears. Yeah, oh yeah. Man is never not gonna fly. 

And even if they did, he would be the last man outta the sky.


End file.
